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Carlos A. Arévalo-Silva, MD; Yilin Cao, MD, PhD; Martin Vacanti, MD; Yulai Weng, DD; Charles A. Vacanti, MD; Roland D. Eavey, MD

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2000;126:1234-1238.

Objective  To investigate the influence of growth factors on tissue-engineered pediatric human elastic cartilage relative to potential clinical application.

Design  Controlled study.

Subjects  Eleven children ranging in age from 5 to 15 years provided auricular elastic cartilage specimens measuring approximately 1 x 1 x 0.2 cm and weighing approximately 100 mg.

Interventions  Three million chondrocytes were plated into 4 groups of Ham F-12 culture medium: group 1, Ham F-12 culture medium only; no growth factors (control group); group 2, Ham F-12 culture medium and basic fibroblast growth factor; group 3, Ham F-12 culture medium and transforming growth actor ; and group 4, Ham F-12 culture medium and a combination of both growth factors. At 3 weeks, the cells were harvested and mixed with a copolymer gel of polyethylene glycol and polypropylene oxide (Pluronic F-127). The cell solution was injected subcutaneously into athymic mice. The constructs were harvested at up to 22 weeks of in vivo culture and histologically analyzed.

Results  The average number of cells generated in vitro was as follows: group 1, 12 million; group 2, 40 million; group 3, 7 million; and group 4, 35 million. Group 2 in vivo gross specimens were the largest and heaviest. Histologically, the control group and the basic fibroblast growth factor group (groups 1 and 2) exhibited characteristics compatible with normal auricular cartilage; groups 3 and 4 demonstrated cellular disorganization and moderate to severe fibrous tissue infiltration.

Conclusions  Basic fibroblast growth factor demonstrates the greatest positive influence on the in vitro and in vivo growth of engineered pediatric human auricular cartilage. The results suggest that basic fibroblast growth factor has the potential for clinical application in which a goal will be to generate a large volume of tissue-engineered cartilage from a small donor specimen in a short period of time and of a quality similar to native human elastic cartilage.

From the Department of Anesthesiology, Center for Tissue Engineering (Drs Arévalo-Silva, Cao, M. Vacanti, Weng, and C. A. Vacanti), and the Department of Pathology (Dr M. Vacanti), University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester; the Department of Otolaryngology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston (Drs Arévalo-Silva and Eavey); and the Department of Otology and Laryngology, Harvard Medical School, Boston (Drs Arévalo-Silva and Eavey).

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